Humanity's Greatest Weapon
by Holydumpling
Summary: It wasn't as if Levi didn't care about his fellow soldiers. That was just what the Survey Corps was: people died before you got to know them, or died after you knew them too well for your own good – but he did care. Oneshot about Levi's POV during episode 23.


Disclaimer: I don't own Snk! (If I did... it would be Levi X harem by now... *coughcough* Am I the only one who thinks like this?)

Oneshot about Levi's POV during episode 23.  
I had to write this because I couldn't just sit there enduring these painful episode 23 feels. Personally, I think that 23 is more... destructive than 22. Especially the part where Petra's body is abandoned. So yeah...  
Levi's character is really interesting to explore. I tried to keep him in character. Please comment! 3

* * *

Levi should have taken it as a fair warning when those two idiots argued in favor of retrieving their deceased companion's corpse. The mere thought of it was preposterous. Fighting titans on enemy territory only to recover a body that could no longer move or talk or think?

It wasn't as if Levi didn't care about his fellow soldiers. It was true he didn't know this Ivan they talked about – that was what the Survey Corps was: people died before you got to know them, or died after you knew them too well for your own good – but he _did_ care. He did care, just kept it beneath a mask of indifference that, unlike Irwin's, wasn't as impenetrable. Others looked up to him in times such as these, and it was his duty to suppress emotions that would render him anything less than satisfactory, which for the most part was equivalent to being exceptional. Levi had to stay strong, both for humanity and for himself.

He glanced behind him towards the two small figures on horseback, fleeing desperately for their lives. And then he looked behind them at two much larger figures, perhaps class 15 m titans. Vicious things, they were, at least to the average soldier. He felt compelled to help in some way, but his body did not acknowledge his thoughts. He was at the rear of the group. Offering help meant he would fall behind, which would cause the entire group to slow its pace. And as much as he didn't want to admit it, the female titan had badly injured his right foot, so fighting in his current state was not an option.

Ackerman was already there anyway, and Levi watched as the whole scene played out, as familiar as any other daily routine. Of course someone would die. Of course he would have to watch. He was rather used to the reality of death by now, but that didn't stop him from gritting his teeth as the titan gulped down the last of its victim, a man whom Levi had talked to only minutes ago. Levi was disgusted, very disgusted. The problem was, he couldn't figure out if the disgust was aimed at the titans or at himself.

Humanity's greatest weapon. That shit.

As expected, Ackerman had expertly dealt with the first titan; even so she only managed to save one of the two idiots. The remaining blonde stumbled out of the dead titan's loosened grasp, grateful to be alive and horrified to have faced death. It was ugly, the fear, the panic, the hate, the relief. The whole fucking world was ugly, but that was what they had been given and what they would have to work with. It was either that, or die.

Urgent conversation was being made by those on the carts now, and Levi began to listen.  
"No! They'll reach us!" one of them shouted. "I'll get behind them! I'll draw their attention and then you –"

The titans were not yet close enough to be a threat; experience told him that much. But he was also well aware of the distance that the Survey Corps needed to cover, which was quite far. They had a few minutes, maybe, before the titans would become a threat.

Think fast. Choose wisely. Be prudent. No regrets. Things that had been beaten into him even before he had joined the Survey Corps, in his days when he had roamed the streets as a thug looking for fights. Well, the safety of the living was worth far more than the dignity of the dead. Bodies were worth nothing if they couldn't hold dreams. In this situation, they would all benefit from being practical than from being sentimental. After all, weren't unnecessary emotions what caused this problem in the first place?

"No," he said, interrupting the man. "Just abandon the bodies. They'll reach us."

"B-But…" the soldier responded in disbelief.

"In the past, many bodies haven't made it back," Levi argued. "These guys aren't anything special." Sure they were. Just not more than those that were still breathing.

"Are we really doing this?" the other man shouted. The question came again, something of a strained shout, when he didn't get a response. "Are we really doing it?!"

Levi looked down at his foot, tried testing it to see if movement was possible. It hurt like hell. "Damn it!" At this rate, he really would have to fight, despite the further injury doing so would cause. Fucking idiots.

"We have to!" the first soldier shouted.

And with that, they pushed off the topmost body from the pile. It was pushed off the cart roughly, hastily, and without care. What little scraps of dignity that the dead held no longer mattered in the face of the big picture. The body rolled pitifully off the cart and onto the ground, bouncing off the terrain in huge bounds. There was a sickening snap as the titan stomped carelessly onto the body. They all heard it. It was a hideous crunch that resonated within their bones and triggered something deeper within their hearts.

Time came for the next body. Like with the first, no hesitation was involved - they had made the decision to do it, and that was it. As the corpse tumbled through the air, Levi caught a glimpse of red hair that blazed gold in the sunlight; a bloodied face framed by heavenly fire; closed eyes that were dark and starkly contrasted with the pallid color of death. Eyes that had once held so, so much. Petra.

Shit. Shit shit _shit_. He bit his lip, clenched his jaw, suppressed a feeling that pierced him from the inside out. He was as human as the rest of them, as disgusting as the rest of them, as useless as the rest of them. Levi, humanity's greatest weapon. That shit.


End file.
